1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting head such as an ink jet recording head which is provided with a plurality of head units which eject a liquid from nozzles.
2. Related Art
An image recording head is an example of an ink jet recording head which is used in an image recording apparatus such as an ink jet recording apparatus; however, recently liquid ejecting heads are also being adapted for use in various manufacturing apparatuses, making use of the characteristic of being capable of causing extremely small amounts of a liquid to accurately land in predetermined positions. For example, the liquid ejecting head is being adapted for use in display manufacturing apparatuses which manufacture color filters of liquid crystal displays and the like, electrode forming apparatuses which form electrodes of organic electro-luminescence (EL) displays, face emission displays (FED), and the like, and chip manufacturing apparatuses which manufacture biochips (biochemical elements). In a recording head for an image recording apparatus, a liquid-state ink is ejected, and in a color material ejecting head for a display manufacturing apparatus, solutions of color materials for each of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) are ejected. In an electrode material ejecting head for an electrode forming apparatus, a liquid-state electrode material is ejected, and in a bio-organic matter ejecting head for a chip manufacturing apparatus, a solution of bio-organic matter is ejected.
Among the liquid ejecting heads described above, there is a liquid ejecting head which is provided with a plurality of head units which include a plurality of nozzles which are formed in a nozzle surface, a pressure chamber which is formed for each nozzle, and actuators such as piezoelectric elements which cause changes in pressure inside each of the pressure chambers. The plurality of head units are adhesively fixed to a fixing plate from the nozzle surface side. The fixing plate is formed such that the edge portion of the bottom surface to which the nozzle surface is fixed is folded to the head unit side and surrounds the head units. There is a liquid ejecting head in which a gap between the side surfaces of the head units and the side surfaces of the fixing plate which is folded along the side surfaces of the head unit is filled with plural separate layers of a filler such as an adhesive such that the hardness in the cured state increases approaching the bottom surface side of the fixing plate (for example, refer to Japanese Patent No. 5136752).
However, in the liquid ejecting head described above, since the hardness of the filler which fills the gap between the side surfaces of the head units and the side surfaces of the fixing plate is reduced the further the filler is from the bottom surface of the fixing plate, for example, when a recording medium collides with the side surfaces of the fixing plate due to a so-called jam in which a recording medium such as paper is jammed, the side surfaces warp easily. In particular, since a recording medium which is formed of a synthetic resin such as vinyl chloride has high rigidity and does not easily rip in comparison to paper, the force which is applied to the side surfaces of the fixing plate when the recording medium collides with the side surfaces of the fixing plate is great. When the side surfaces of the fixing plate warp due to the external force, stress arises in the bottom surface of the fixing plate. As a result, there is a concern that the nozzle surface which is fixed to the bottom surface will be damaged.